Rep. Joe Garcia Criticized for Comparing House Republicans to Taliban

Because what we really need more of in Washington, D.C., is partisan bickering and petty name calling, Miami-area Rep. Joe Garcia took to the House floor yesterday to compare House Republicans to the Taliban.

"What needs to be done is we need to sit. I sat with my colleagues on the other side just yesterday. You could see the angst in their eyes, but unfortunately they've been taken hostage by extremist elements in their party," Garcia said. "The time has come to put these guys aside. Come to a deal. We can fix a lot of these problems."

"We just need our colleagues to step up and push aside these extremist elements, this Taliban that is in America's core for some reason," he said later.

"Congressman Joe Garcia's remarks on the floor of the United States House of Representatives, equating some of his colleagues to the Taliban, is reprehensible and disgusting," Republican Party of Florida Chairman Lenny Curry told the Miami Herald's Naked Politics. "Congressman Garcia needs to apologize to his colleagues and all Floridians."

"If anyone is offended, I'm sorry," he told the same blog. "As much as people want to call me a bomb-thrower, look at my record. I'm have one of the most, if not the most, moderate voting records in Congress in the Florida delegation."